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USDA Proposes to Expand Imports of Citrus Fruit from Peru

Friday, May 01, 2015

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow grapefruit, limes, mandarins, tangerines, sweet oranges and tangelos from the entire country of Peru into the continental United States. Such fruit may currently only be imported from five approved citrus-producing zones in Peru. Comments on this proposal are due no later than June 30.

As a condition of entry, the citrus fruit would have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include requirements for fruit fly trapping and monitoring, production sites, recordkeeping, and inspections designed to exclude quarantine pests. The fruit would also be required to be imported in commercial consignments and accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of Peru stating that the fruit has been inspected and found free of E. aurantiana. At the port of first arrival, an inspector would sample and cut citrus fruits from each consignment to detect pest infestation.

APHIS states that additional volumes of citrus expected to be shipped to the U.S. from Peru pursuant to this rule are 5,000 metric tons in the first year the rule is in effect, 6,500 MT in the second year and 8,000 MT in the third year. These quantities are equivalent to less than one percent of annual U.S. citrus production or U.S. citrus imports.